I agree with Idrian completely!!!!! I will never sell mine! It is a wery reliable unit, the only thing that is little weak is the jog wheel and the flat plastic knobs but who cares? you can use the software to programm new sounds more easy.

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Thursday-Jul-25-2002 at 03:48

Idrian
a professional user
writes:

This is one of the best synth out there! If you think it sounds cold and not analog, you probably can not programm a synth at all! You can get really fat basses with this thing like moog and old Roland synths. It is like a hybrid from fat and soft to hard cold digital tunes. Do not get scared by the looks! This is one of the best cept secrets for professional users. GET ONE NOW!!!!

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Thursday-Jul-25-2002 at 03:43

UralTEK
a hobbyist user
from Finland
writes:

First of all: if any person says aJuno sounds thin, that person hasn't made any own patches!

We have to remember that this synth comes from the same era as DX7, which very clearly reflects to the presets: most of them are thin, cheesy and shitty - Roland probably tried to make something that sounds digital, which was very cool at that time. When you start tweaking your own sounds you will soon notice that this thing can sound REALLY mean.

There is no comparison to ANY virtual analogs. A couple months ago I didn't like this synth so much (except for the Beltram / Dominator / Hardcore -sound ofcourse) and I was thinking of selling it and buying some VA. I listened to different VAs, different sounds from different sources... And after a few days of listening I powered my aJuno2 I finally realised that I don't really want any VA! Name ANY VA, aJuno will wipe its ass what comes to fullness, character, bass.. It just sounds pleasant to my ears.

IMO it doesn't lack any bass compared to many other analogs (Roland 101, 202, System 100M, Juno-106, Yamaha CS-5, CS-15, Korg Sigma, Poly800, DW6000/8000, Siel DK80 and some others I've tried or owned). "Basswise" it is at the same level as 101 and 202 IMHO - not bad.

Otherwise there is no point comparing the sound to another analogs - every single one of them souns unique. Let's get to the specs.

The user interface is OK. Despite the fact that it has only a few buttons and a data wheel that works bad when dusty, this thing is easy to use. All sound parameters are in same menu, in logical order. Just press "parameter select" (or something like that), select the parameter with the wheel, press "parameter value" (or something like that), change the value with data wheel, and press "parameter select" again. Everything works in realtime which is nice. Or, just forget the user interface and use a MIDI editor/librarian which is available from the net, like I do.

It only has one VCO per sound (six sounds polyphony if you didn't already know), but it has a few special waveforms which makes making quite unique sounds possible. 1 VCO can be a combination of square (with different pulsewidths), saw (with odd waveforms), subosc and noise.

The VCF sounds very different than on other Rolands I have tried, but still very Rolandish. Lovely and usable resonance. The only downsides are that it doesn't self oscillate, and because of 128 step digital cutoff control (thanks to MIDI), you can hear the steps in high resonance sounds at high cutoff frequencies - which can actually be a good thing, after all this is part of aJuno's character.

There is a simple HPF with 4 steps, the lowest is actually bass boost - makes your neighbours hate you.

Only one ENV, BAD. The ENV isn't a traditional 4 parameter one but more complex, GOOD. Of course it would be nice to have another one of them.

LFO - well, it's an LFO. Goes to audio frequencies.

...and the thing that makes this a mean machine... CHORUS. Roland's dirty, noisy CHORUS. Very, very nice! Looking at the patches that I like or that I've made myself, almost every one of them has chorus (the Dominator lead too=). Sounds good with basses, strings, pads, leads, bleeps and squeeks IMHO.

OK, enough babble.. Points: Sound 5 (unique, has character and still usable) User interface 4 (easy to use, but lack of knobs - good that we have SYSEX) Features 3 (sounds lovely but would like to have more OSCs, ENVs, modulators and modulation routes for more complex sounds)

...so I'll give it a total of...

Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Saturday-Mar-30-2002 at 16:59

Mike
a professional user
from Austin, Texas, USA
writes:

Kinda limited but its good for bass sounds. It's best in a live setting. The Juno 2 is much easier to carry around than most other synths. its very narrow compared to others from the 80's. i've programmed 6 or 7 good thick sounds that I constantly use. It's perfect for learning how to program the digital "knobless" variety of synths from the 80's. The sounds I have created are simple but warmer than the DX 7s and ESQs or the same time. Not bad.

Rating: 3 out of 5
posted Saturday-Jan-12-2002 at 22:40

sean
a professional user
from usa
writes:

Just wanted to say that BOTH the JUNO 1 AND 2 can save sounds thru sysex to your computer sequencer by simply selecting the sound you want to send with the bank buttons. Throw your sequencer into record on the corresponding midi channel and press the bank keys of the sound you want to save and it is done. To reload it, play the sound back with your sequencer and it will be sent to the synth. These are great little synths for the price. I have two juno 1s and a juno 2. Will probably sell one of my mint Juno 1s.